Al Arbour, who coached the New York Islanders to four consecutive Stanley Cup championships in the 1980s and finished his career with the second-most coaching wins in National Hockey League history, died on Friday in Sarasota, Fla. He was 82.

His death was announced by the Islanders. Arbour was being treated for Parkinson’s disease and dementia, NHL.com reported.

When he was named the Islanders’ coach in 1973, Arbour took over a team that had won only 12 games the previous season, when it joined the N.H.L. as an expansion franchise.

Arbour emphasized defense at first, then a more freewheeling style as talented players arrived, and he was an intense presence at practices as well as on game nights. He spent long hours examining videotapes of games and compiling detailed scouting reports when few other coaches were doing it.

With General Manager Bill Torrey supplying the future Hall of Famers Denis Potvin on defense, Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy and Clark Gillies at forward and Billy Smith in goal, Arbour coached the Islanders to the league championship from 1980 to 1983. The Islanders became the second franchise in N.H.L. history to win four consecutive Stanley Cup titles, the Montreal Canadiens having captured five straight Cups from 1956 to 1960 and four straight in the seasons before the Islanders’ streak.

Arbour, a defenseman for 14 seasons in the N.H.L., and the rare player who wore glasses, played as a regular for two Stanley Cup championship teams and briefly for a third. He coached the St. Louis Blues for three seasons, then coached the Islanders from 1973 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1994 before going behind the bench for a single evening in 2007, his 1,500th game with the franchise.

Arbour’s 782 victories and 1,607 games as a coach in the regular season rank second to Scotty Bowman in league history. He received the Jack Adams Award as the N.H.L.’s top coach in 1979 and the Lester Patrick Trophy for service to American hockey in 1992. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996.

When he first arrived at Nassau Coliseum, Arbour insisted on a positive atmosphere, no easy task for an Islanders team coming off 60 losses in its inaugural season.

“I used to hear them talking in the locker room before a game,” Arbour once recalled. “And they wouldn’t say, ‘Let’s go out and win.’ They’d say, ‘I wonder how much we’ll get beat by tonight.’ They were satisfied to lose a game as long as it was close. I told them: ‘Never be happy unless you win.’ ”

Arbour went on to win 740 games as the Islanders’ coach, an N.H.L. record for a single franchise.

Alger Joseph Arbour was born on Nov. 1, 1932, in Sudbury, Ontario, where his father worked for a nickel-mining company.

He made his N.H.L. debut with the Detroit Red Wings in 1953, won Stanley Cups with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1961 and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1962, and then appeared briefly with the Leafs’ 1964 champions. He finished his playing career with the Blues in the 1970-71 season, when he became the team’s coach. Concentrating on defending in his own half of the ice rather than carrying the puck, he scored only 12 goals in 626 regular-season games.

When Arbour became the Islanders’ coach, he had a gem in Potvin, a defenseman who could score as well as dish out rugged checks. But Arbour, the perfectionist, was hard on his young star. “You left him alone he’d fall asleep,” Arbour once said. “Denny was very casual, nonchalant. You got him mad, he’d take it out on the other team.”

Potvin and his fellow Islanders endured a grueling regimen under Arbour. “It was almost punishment that first year,” Potvin recalled. “It wasn’t in him to say, ‘You guys did well last night, take the day off.’ Our practices were a grind — two hours.”

Arbour’s Islanders pulled off a remarkable achievement in his second season, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins in a playoff series by winning four straight games after losing the first three, joining the 1942 Maple Leafs at that point as the only N.H.L. teams to come back from an 0-3 playoff deficit.

The Islanders lost their first three games to the Philadelphia Flyers in the next series, then won three straight before being eliminated. The Flyers, in 2010, and the Los Angeles Kings, in 2014, are the only teams since then to have won a playoff series after being down, 0-3.

The Islanders defeated the Flyers for the Stanley Cup championship in 1980. After winning the Cup the next three years as well, they reached the final for a fifth consecutive time in 1984, but lost to the Edmonton Oilers after capturing 19 straight playoff series dating to 1980.

Lorne Henning, who played for Arbour, became an assistant coach under him and later served as head coach of the Islanders, once told how during the long regular-season winters, Arbour always kept his eye on springtime.

“Al made things tough on his players,” Henning said. “He was always testing character — a smart remark one time, a benching another time. He wanted to find out whether you could take the heat. Al knew in November who could be counted on in May. He didn’t want players who weren’t mentally tough, so he kept applying the pressure.”

Arbour retired from coaching after the 1985-86 season, joining the front office, then returned as coach in December 1988. His Islanders upset the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins in the 1993 playoffs, but he could not bring another Cup to Long Island. He retired for the second and final time as coach in June 1994 and became the Islanders’ vice president for operations.

He is survived by his wife, Claire, and his children, Joann, Jay, Julie and Janice.

On Nov. 3, 2007, Arbour returned to the Islanders’ bench under a one-day contract so he could coach a 1,500th regular-season game for the team. Players from his 1980s championship teams returned to Nassau Coliseum to honor him, and they raised a banner bearing No. 1,500.

The Islanders rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Penguins, 3-2, and afterward, Miroslav Satan, who scored the Islanders’ tying and winning goals, spoke of the inspiration Arbour provided. As he put it: “Whenever we came back to the bench, we saw the legend standing there.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: Al Arbour Is Dead at 82; Turned Lowly Islanders Into Dynasty in the ’80s. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe